Ant-Man and the Wasp finally gave one of the female superheroes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe a proper leading role, with Evangeline Lilly suiting up as Hope Van Dyne, the more capable and experienced insect-inspired partner of Paul Rudd’s Scott Lang. However, just because she’s a big part of the Ant-Man movies, don’t expect the Wasp to spin-off into a movie of her own.

(Welcome to Not Dead Yet, a feature dedicated to new Blu-ray releases and what special features you should be excited about. Because yes, some of us still like to own physical copies of our movies.)

This week’s Blu-ray column features the best movie of the year! And also Avengers: Infinity War. Infinity War is the big title here, so much so that there aren’t many other Blu releases to compete with it. That said, we’re also looking ahead, to next week’s release of First Reformed, the best film of 2018 (as of now). Also here: American Animals, an underrated movie that was poorly marketed.

Here are the new Blu-ray releases and their special features you should check out this week and beyond.

Avengers: Infinity War is now available on Blu-ray and DVD, and to mark the occasion, Marvel Studios has released some clips from the superhero sequel’s special features. Take a look at a new section of the gag reel (it’s different than the one we wrote about a few days ago), as well as portions of featurettes dedicated to Wakanda, the battle on Titan, Thanos, and more. Read More »

13 visual effects vendors collaborated to make 18 digital characters for Avengers: Infinity War, and Josh Brolin‘s villainous Thanos is the most important of them all. The entire movie hinges on that performance, and if you don’t buy him as a living, breathing character, Marvel would have had their own Steppenwolf problem to deal with. Thankfully, Thanos ended up being one of the best CGI villains in cinema history – thanks in large part to the hard-working team at VFX company Digital Domain.

To promote the superhero sequel’s home video release, /Film was invited to take a tour of the company’s L.A. facility and learn the steps they took to bring the Mad Titan to life. I brought a couple of cameras along and put together an in-depth video about how the Thanos visual effects were created and incorporated into the movie.

This goes far beyond those videos that simply show a scene with one VFX layer at a time added into the final version. This is detailed stuff, and I hope you check it out below. Read More »

There were plenty of people who didn’t survive the mighty snap of Thanos at the end of Avengers: Infinity War, but as time has gone on, we’ve learned about some of the people who didn’t turn to dust when the mad titan snapped his fingers and wiped out half of life in the entire universe. Now one more survivor has been confirmed thanks to a lovely birthday greeting.

You might remember that during the events of Captain America: Civil War, the mighty Thor found himself displaced in Australia, forcing him to crash with an office worker named Darryl (Daley Pearson). Now the god of thunder’s former roommate has emerged as a survivor of the snap of Thanos to wish Thor a happy birthday. Read More »

The future slate of Marvel Studios is mostly unclear. Right now, the only projects officially on the calendar are Captain Marvel in March of 2019, Avengers 4 a couple months later in May, and Spider-Man: Far From Home a couple months after that in July. But beyond that, fans are wondering what the future holds. One answer might lie in the director of The Equalizer.

Director Antoine Fuqua has been making the publicity rounds as The Equalizer 2 has been rolling into theaters around the world, and the filmmaker confirmed that he has an upcoming meeting with Marvel Studios boss man Kevin Feige to discuss the possibility of heading into comic book territory. Read More »

We all know Marvel Studios is currently celebrating the 10th anniversary of the launch of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And while Avengers: Infinity War was one hell of a way to celebrate the unprecedented crossover of all these film franchises, the comic book movie studio has another treat for fans to enjoy this year.

Marvel Studios has announced that all 20 of their movies, from Iron Man to this year’s Avengers: Infinity War and Ant-Man and the Wasp, will return to IMAX screens for a limited run at the end of August through the first week of September. But there’s a specific schedule for the movies that will make it rather difficult for even the most hardcore Marvel fan to see all of them. Find out more below. Read More »

If the end of Avengers: Infinity War left you not feeling so good, at least you’ll have this delightful if brief gag reel to revive you from your misery. Dropped on the interwebs ahead of the Marvel film’s upcoming Blu-ray release, the Avengers: Infinity War gag reel will help you laugh the pain away and maybe even make you consider buying a wind machine.

When Sony first announced that it was developing a Venom movie, the descriptor “R-rated” immediately followed. Venom was touted as Sony’s first R-rated Marvel film, an intriguing draw for the infamous antihero character. Without the kid-friendly Spider-Man dragging Venom down, the comic book movie was to be Sony’s grasp at being taken seriously. And coming off the heels of the success of Fox’s Logan, it seemed like a perfectly reasonable goal.

But a new report suggests that the highly-promoted Venom rating may not be set in stone. Concerns from high up in Sony may push the Venom rating down to PG-13. And like that, the Venom R-rating may disappear, like a turd in the wind.

Another day, another detail regarding the uncertain status of director James Gunn and the future of the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise that he shepherded to success. And this one at least has some semblance of hope.

There are currently “back channel conversations” happening between Marvel Studios and The Walt Disney Company as the comic book movie studio tries to convince the House of Mouse to hire back James Gunn as the director of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Read More »